In the construction of a modern office building, there is erected a steel skeleton. It is necessary to have floors in the office building. The floors are concrete floors.
The steel skeleton has steel beams. Steel forms are placed on the steel beams and also the supports for the floors. Then, freshly mixed concrete is poured onto the steel forms and allowed to cure. In order to have concrete floors it is necessary to definitely position the steel forms onto the beams and also onto the supports of the steel forms. Further, it is necessary to definitely position the steel forms with respect to each other. The steel forms are corrugated sheets of steel. On one side of the sheet of steel there is an upright edge. On the other sides of the sheet of steel there is an envelope to receive the upright edge of the adjacent sheet of steel.
The steel forms are laid on the beams and on the supports for the steel forms so that the envelope of the first steel form receives the upright edge of the second steel form, and, likewise, the envelope of the second steel form receives the upright edge of the third steel form. This is repeated until there are sufficient steel forms on the beams and on the supports of the steel forms to receive the freshly mixed, uncured concrete.
The adjacent steel forms are bonded together. At the present time the adjacent steel forms are manually bonded together by a manually operated crimping tool. The operator actuates the crimping tool and makes a dent in each side of the envelope of the steel form and also in the upright edge of the next adjacent steel form. The dent definitely positions the steel forms with respect to each other. Also, a welder may tack weld the steel form to the beams so as to definitely position the steel forms with respect to the beams.
After the steel forms have been positioned on the beams and onto the supports for the steel forms, and also definitely positioned with respect to each other, uncured concrete can be poured onto the top of the steel forms. The weight of the uncured concrete assists in positioning the steel forms onto the beams. In time, the concrete cures and bonds to the steel forms so as to position the steel forms onto the beams.
As previously stated, an operator manually crimps the adjacent steel forms to each other. The operator can take a crimping tool and walk on the steel forms and crimp together the adjacent steel forms. The manual crimping of the adjacent steel forms is a slow process as the operator cannot rapidly operate the manual crimping tool. Further, in time, the operator tires after operating the manual crimping tool and slows down in his work. With a manual crimping tool there are probably fewer indents for the sheets of steel as compared to my power operated crimping tool.